194 Abode of Gods
ashes, and threw over his shoulders the skin of deer, and
adorned himself with snakes instead of jewels, and took the
Trisul, or trident, in his hand and wearing a necklace of dead
men's skulls, and seated on a bull, came to the marriage". And
so the legends and tales go on, quaint in themselves, yet of
absorbing interest, when we realise that these form the mentle
of mystery which forever hangs round these sublime mountains,
in the minds of the millions of worshippers who live in every
part of India but throng to Himalayas in Search of the "the true,
the good and the beautiful".
The spread of Buddhism
The spread of Buddhism in the Himalayas is a wellknown fact.
The Ceylonese Buddhist chronicle gives the names of missionaries
sent to Kashmir, to Gandhara and to the 'Himalayas'. Five
missionaries were sent to the Himalayan region and the three are
named as Majjhima, Kassappagotta and Dundhubissara. When
the brick built mounds or "tops" at Sanchi in Central India were
opened by Cunningham some funeral urns were found with
inscription, and one of these bore the legend "of the good man,
Kassapa Gotta, the teacher of all the Himalayan region". On
the inside of the urn is written "of the good man Majjhima".
In another tope was an urn inscribed "of the goodman Gotiputta
of the Himalaya, successor of Dundubhissara". The discovery
of these urns at Sanchi goes to show that there has been a
custom amongst the Buddhists to distribute portion" of the ashes
of holy men to different places, where they were treasured by
the community, and topes were built over them.
After the entry of Aryans in India, the simple teaching of the
Saivites was soon overwhelmed with the entry of brahmanism
which worshipped pantheon of Gods and Goddesses. Thus
arose a peculiar caste of priests, which not only arrogated to
itself the first place in society, but soon Buddhism also made
its headway in the interiors of Himalayas, particularly amongst
the Bhotias. Buddhism was, in fact, a protest against caste j
privileges, ritualism, and priestly tyranny, and answered the
worship of a multiplicity of Gods, extending to thousands, nay, \
millions, by the altruistic doctrine which denied that there were i
gods. For years, Brahmanism and Buddhism contested the!